This book seeks to understand the state, nation and political identities that are being forged in modern Zimbabwe, and the nature of control that Robert Mugabe’s ZANU exercises over those political ...
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This book seeks to understand the state, nation and political identities that are being forged in modern Zimbabwe, and the nature of control that Robert Mugabe’s ZANU exercises over those political institutions. Focusing on the perspective and experiences of societal groups including NGOs, churches, trade unions, students and academics the book explores how the construction of consent, threat of coercion and material resources are used to integrate social groups into the ruling nationalist coalition, but also how they resist and frame competing discourses and institutions. Taking seriously the discursive and institutional legacies of the nationalist struggle and the liberation war in shaping politics, it explores how independent Zimbabwe’s politics were molded by discursive claims to foster national unity that delegitimize autonomous political action outside the ruling party. Building a new societal coalition entailed the "demobilization" of ZANU(PF)’s original nationalist constituency which had backed it during the liberation war, and the "inclusion" of new groups including donors, white farmers and business interests. It also shows how legal practices and institution-building defused and constrained opportunities for contestation, even while the regime used the security forces to suppress those who challenged its political monopoly or who otherwise resisted incorporation. It thus presents a complex picture of how individuals and groups became bound up in the project of state- and nation-building, despite contesting or even rejecting aspects of it.Less

Understanding Zimbabwe : From Liberation to Authoritarianism

Sara Rich Dorman

Published in print: 2016-10-01

This book seeks to understand the state, nation and political identities that are being forged in modern Zimbabwe, and the nature of control that Robert Mugabe’s ZANU exercises over those political institutions. Focusing on the perspective and experiences of societal groups including NGOs, churches, trade unions, students and academics the book explores how the construction of consent, threat of coercion and material resources are used to integrate social groups into the ruling nationalist coalition, but also how they resist and frame competing discourses and institutions. Taking seriously the discursive and institutional legacies of the nationalist struggle and the liberation war in shaping politics, it explores how independent Zimbabwe’s politics were molded by discursive claims to foster national unity that delegitimize autonomous political action outside the ruling party. Building a new societal coalition entailed the "demobilization" of ZANU(PF)’s original nationalist constituency which had backed it during the liberation war, and the "inclusion" of new groups including donors, white farmers and business interests. It also shows how legal practices and institution-building defused and constrained opportunities for contestation, even while the regime used the security forces to suppress those who challenged its political monopoly or who otherwise resisted incorporation. It thus presents a complex picture of how individuals and groups became bound up in the project of state- and nation-building, despite contesting or even rejecting aspects of it.

In October 1996, a motley crew of ageing Marxists and unemployed youths coalesced to revolt against Mobutu Seso Seko, president of Zaire/Congo since 1965. Backed by a Rwanda-led regional coalition ...
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In October 1996, a motley crew of ageing Marxists and unemployed youths coalesced to revolt against Mobutu Seso Seko, president of Zaire/Congo since 1965. Backed by a Rwanda-led regional coalition that drew support from Asmara to Luanda, the rebels of the AFDL marched over 1500 kilometers in seven months to crush the dictatorship. To the Congolese rebels and their Pan-Africanist allies, the vanquishing of the Mobutu regime represented nothing short of a “second independence” for Congo and Central Africa as a whole. Within 15 months, however, Central Africa’s “liberation Peace” would collapse, triggering a cataclysmic fratricide between the heroes of the war against Mobutu and igniting the deadliest conflict since World War II. Uniquely drawing on hundreds of interviews with protagonists from Congo, Rwanda, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Africa, Belgium, France, the UK and the US, Why Comrades Go to War offers a novel theoretical and empirical account of Africa’s Great War. It argues that the seeds of Africa’s Great War were sown in the revolutionary struggle against Mobutu—the way the revolution came together, the way it was organized, and, paradoxically, the very way it succeeded. In particular, the book argues that the overthrow of Mobutu proved a Pyrrhic victory because the protagonists ignored the philosophy of Julius Nyerere, the father of Africa's liberation movements: they put the gun before the unglamorous but essential task of building the domestic and regional political institutions and organizational structures necessary to consolidate peace after revolution.Less

Why Comrades Go to War : Liberation Politics and the Outbreak of Africa's Deadliest Conflict

Philip RoesslerHarry Verhoeven

Published in print: 2016-11-15

In October 1996, a motley crew of ageing Marxists and unemployed youths coalesced to revolt against Mobutu Seso Seko, president of Zaire/Congo since 1965. Backed by a Rwanda-led regional coalition that drew support from Asmara to Luanda, the rebels of the AFDL marched over 1500 kilometers in seven months to crush the dictatorship. To the Congolese rebels and their Pan-Africanist allies, the vanquishing of the Mobutu regime represented nothing short of a “second independence” for Congo and Central Africa as a whole. Within 15 months, however, Central Africa’s “liberation Peace” would collapse, triggering a cataclysmic fratricide between the heroes of the war against Mobutu and igniting the deadliest conflict since World War II. Uniquely drawing on hundreds of interviews with protagonists from Congo, Rwanda, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Africa, Belgium, France, the UK and the US, Why Comrades Go to War offers a novel theoretical and empirical account of Africa’s Great War. It argues that the seeds of Africa’s Great War were sown in the revolutionary struggle against Mobutu—the way the revolution came together, the way it was organized, and, paradoxically, the very way it succeeded. In particular, the book argues that the overthrow of Mobutu proved a Pyrrhic victory because the protagonists ignored the philosophy of Julius Nyerere, the father of Africa's liberation movements: they put the gun before the unglamorous but essential task of building the domestic and regional political institutions and organizational structures necessary to consolidate peace after revolution.

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